A Fabulous New Year's Party
It's time to ring in the New Year, and what better way to do it than with a fabulous dinner party for your nearest and dearest? The trick is to make sure that your party isn't the same as all the others you've been to.
On Tuesday's The Early Show, resident party planning expert, Colin Cowie, offered ideas to ensure that doesn't happen.
Cowie notes what's important for a New Year's Eve party is the participation from the guests, which can start right from the beginning with the invitations.
Cowie says it's easy to design and print out your own invitations, using the computer. All you need is a piece of card stock, some vellum and a ribbon at the top. He suggests using eggplant-colored ink to print your invitations, introducing the evening's color scheme. Ask each guest to prepare a toast for the New Year to share at dinner.
To ensure a good mix of energy at the table, assign seats and use place cards. Another idea is to personalize menu cards so they can double as place cards.
Most New Year's Eve parties start too early in the evening, and then the guests are ready to go before midnight, Cowie says.
The key to a successful party is to start your planning at midnight and work backwards. The party should not begin earlier than 9 p.m., so that when dinner is done, guests are ready to ring in the New Year together, and no one is ready to head home yet.
He suggests using his favorite color scheme: silver and eggplant, which Cowie says is very elegant for a New Year's party.
To glamorize the table, use silver chairs and purple tableware. The centerpiece is a silver-footed bowl filled with abundant red carnations along with tapered candles matching the decor. For the table runner, he uses a cloth, which he folded into sections. Another idea is using silver and amethyst ornaments in glass bowls of various sizes - an easy and inexpensive way to add glamor.
One way to present the champagne is to place it over a bed of ice in a large silver punch bowl. The menu can be casual. In fact, Cowie suggests asking each person to bring a dish and make it a chic potluck, so that you don't have to cook everything yourself.
If you are not having a potluck, he advises a simple menu with food that can be prepared in advance. For instance, you can do salad earlier in the day, prepare a chicken pot pie the day before and use store-bought brownie, ice cream and chocolate sauce for dessert. He also suggests setting the table the day before.
Because this is a New Year's Eve party, you must include some of the traditional touches that would be expected. This means festive hats and horns and other noisemakers. A great music mix is also essential. You can also make a copies of your favorite songs for guests to take home.